July 31, 2007

It seems that Yorkshire Tea are nearly as excited about our fete this weekend as we are, as they confess in this post on their blog. So if you fancy a sit down with a brew and a biscuit on Saturday or Sunday head over to see the people at Yorkshire Tea who'll have the kettle on, well urn (they use less energy than kettles which is always a good thing).

We've had the opportunity the sample Yorkshire Tea's produce before when our kitchen was out of action and can heartly recomend them (the ginger cake is especially good).

Keep up with the in crowd and get your tickets if you haven't already. If you have then start planning your outfit. Straw hats, Panama's and cheque shirts are all in. Evening dresses, high heels and three piece suits are probably out. Saying that though the London Swing Dance Society lot will probably be pretty well dressed we imagine.

July 27, 2007

We've finally finally finished the music line up for our village fete. The last bit of the jigsaw is the excellent Seth Lakeman. Seth went down a storm at Glastonbury this year, and we reckon he'll be doing the business for us too.

Tickets for the fete are available here - see you in the park on 4th and 5th August.

July 25, 2007

All things fete are hottin' up over here at the minute with just 10 days to go until the big weekend. We've got a company wide lunch hour of bunting making tomorrow to help towards our longest bunting in the world attempt. We'll post an update on how it went tomorrow.

The keen eyed amongst you may have also noticed we've got some big posters dotted around London tube stations at the minute as well. Here's one I spotted at Goldhawk Road station this morning (the nearest tube stop to fruit towers). It serves as a nice little reminder of what's to come for us on our way to work each day.

July 24, 2007

This Friday sees the return of the very special V&A village fete. It sounds to be a very contemporary take on the classic fete and includes 'World Mustache Championship', 'Electric Shock Therapy administered by Professor Crispin Jones' and 'Studio Mama's Hairdryer Ping Pong'. Along with stalls by over 30 of the most inventive and dynamic creative individuals working in the UK.

For a taste of what happened last year have a look at these tagged pictures on flickr. I'll be popping along myself for a look.

While we're not going to win the prize for biggest fete, Tansy and I (Cass) both agree that this little gathering, round the corner from Fruit Towers, has all the heart.

Arlett & our Karen bonded over a smoothie (who needs a bottle of Bollinger to get the conversation flowing?) and we soon discovered that Arlett is one of the ladies that helped us keep our bottles warm in winter with the wooly hats she's knitted. Thank you Arlett.

Karen & I played the 'name the rabbit game' (dlightfully as simple as it sounds) and Tansy tried her luck at the tombola, but sadly none of us walked away with a prize. Instead we decided to treat ourselves to the £1 book stall and we're now all proud owners of some classics.

We set up outside to begin with, with our ball in the bucket game, but only managed to get one eager participant before it rained. He insisted on playing by his own rules and got the balls everywhere but in the bucket - but with a face like this we couldn't resist his charms and he won a smoothie all the same. Not before he'd sampled all our recipes though, to make sure he knew what his favourite was. Quite an assertive young man I'd say.

He wasn't the only one who appeared to have a refined palette. This little one was definately more of a berry girl and she took her time in sampling it.

Gernerally the conversation centred around the health benefits and tastiness of the drinks, but we had our share of hot topics to cover including the British Summer and the flood damage in Hammersmith.

And that's how our afternoon went. In such a cosy environment we couldn't help but remember the early days of innocent - and here's a picture to prove it. Our thanks to the lovely people of the Grove Neighbourhood Centre, for reminding us that small can have a big heart.

We've just confirmed our final guest slot for Sunday afternoon on the Acoustic Bandstand. James Carrington will be coming along with his guitar to serenade us all. We hope he brings the weather with him.

On Saturday a bit of rare sunshine shone down on the Manston village fete in Dorset. I popped down there to help my mum out with her annual coconut shy duties. Apart from a smashing cream tea, other highlights from the fete included the Shaftesbury Town Band...